A Tale of Brothers
by idkdudelol
Summary: Damon and Stefan are both ready to lay down their lives to make sure Katherine and Hell are destroyed, but who will deliver the final stab? Starts mid 8x16 in the caves.
1. Chapter 1

"I love you, little brother."

"I love you, too."

The moment was sweet. But that's all it was, a moment. Out of nowhere, Caroline zooms into the cave and breaks Damon's neck while Alaric sneaks up on Stefan, injecting him with a sedative.

"These two are idiots, and sedatives?" Caroline probed.

"After the whole Gilbert ring split personality thing, I added it to my stash. Just in case." Alaric replied. Caroline was impressed, but she didn't have time to think about that. She dragged Damon's body to the side of the tunnel, while Alaric just stood there. "What are we doing? We need to get as far away from this as possible. We can't risk this for the girls. They—"

"Do you trust Bonnie?" Caroline asked. She had this look on her face. Alaric had only seen it a few times. She didn't want to be difficult, but she didn't want to lose anyone. She was desperate and determined to see this through.

"Caroline, we don't even know if Bonnie has magic. At the wedding, that was—"

"Lizzie and Josie siphoning magic from Bonnie. Unless our daughters have spontaneously got powers of their own, what else could it have been, Ric? And that is your best friend and this is my husband." she said, pulling Stefan's body next to Damon's.

"I don't—" Alaric couldn't say anything even if he wanted to.

"I mean Bonnie was powerful enough to create her own dimension where she kept Enzo."

"And now it's gone. When Lizzie and Josie siphoned Bonnie, they took that dimension away from her. Caroline, you know what it's like to lose a mother. You can't do that to our kids. They need you. " Alaric managed to say.

"You know— " Caroline's voice trailed off.

Alaric was confused. Caroline didn't just stop when she went off on one of her rants. "What? Why—"

Caroline pushes her hair behind her ears. "Shhh, I think Bonnie did it. I hear the hellfire. It's coming back," she responded.

"Did we really argue that much?" He wasn't joking, but Caroline wasn't going to answer and Alaric knew that. "So what's the plan?" he asked again.

"Something the Salvatore martyrs failed to think of." she smiled.

* * *

A few minutes passed. Caroline and Alaric just sat there, re-daggering Katherine every time her body moved. "You'd think this would be more dramatic," Alaric said, pushing the dagger into Katherine, once more.

"Or fun." Caroline added. Alaric grinned. "Sorry, I just think that killing the queen of Hell and ending all of the misery she caused would be more fulfilling." Caroline was miffed.

"Careful, Caroline. Your Klaus is showing." Alaric joked.

Caroline rolled her eyes and got up. She pulled Katherine's body into the tunnel and yanked the dagger out of her heart. "Got any vervain in that stash?" Caroline asked, propping Katherine up in front of her.

"Yeah," Alaric said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a syringe. He tosses it to Caroline who injects it into Katherine.

"Ugh, why am I so groggy? And when did you get so knife happy, Caroline? I thought we were friends." Katherine groaned as she woke. Katherine didn't have much time to process. By the time her vision came back to her, all she could see was the yellow and orange of the fire approaching. "No, no. Caroline, please." Katherine tried to break free, but the vervain had weakened her.

"Burn in Hell, bitch." Caroline stabbed Katherine with the dagger and sped out of the tunnel as fast as she could. By the time she turned around, she only saw fire, but she didn't turn away from it. She waited and watched as the last of the hellfire left the tunnel. And when she couldn't hear anything, she let out a sigh of relief. It was all over.

Caroline turned around and grabbed Stefan's body, lugging it back to the car where the twins were sound asleep. "Do you think we'll ever tell them that they slept through Mystic Falls almost being destroyed?" Alaric whispered, dragging Damon's body to the trunk.

"Wha… Are we really putting our passed out family in trunk of the car?" Caroline snap-whispered.

"Do you wanna wake the girls?" Alaric chuckled, opening the trunk.

"Oh, God no." she said, tossing Stefan in. Alaric followed, placing Damon in.

* * *

When Stefan wakes up, his head is throbbing. It takes a few seconds for his vision to clear before realizing that his friends surround him. "What happened?" he asked, grabbing his head.

"Well, for starters, you didn't die." Caroline said. She gives Stefan a quick peck on the lips.

"No, then that means, Damon, what happened —" Stefan jerked up. He tried to push past Caroline but he wasn't strong enough.

"How is it that of all times to wake up, you choose the few minutes I go to take a piss?" Damon said, entering the room.

"Damon how? What? Is Katherine?" Stefan asked, confused.

"Blondie outsmarted us and saved both our asses. I guess we'll both just have to live with the mistakes we made." Damon replied.

"Actually, Bonnie did that. I just stopped one or both of you from killing yourselves in the process. And here this should help you head, Stefan." Caroline said, handing him an aspirin and water. "You bumped your head on the way back to the house, last night." He quickly downed the medicine and turned his attention to Bonnie. She was standing the furthest away, trying to hide behind the crowd, but it wasn't working. He got up and walked to her.

"I know that this wasn't part of the plan," he paused to get her to look at him, which Bonnie did, with hostility, "but I will spent everyday for the rest of my life trying to apologize for what I took from you." He said. Bonnie nodded, tears formed in her eyes. "Brother," Stefan said as he walked out of the room and Damon followed.

When Damon caught up to his brother, he was sitting in the back yard, a bottle of bourbon and two glasses next to him. "A little early to be drinking, Stefan." Damon smiled. Stefan didn't respond. "And mixing aspirin and booze. Your fragile body couldn't handle it." He added, sitting next to Stefan. That managed to get him to smirk.

There's a pause. Both brothers sit there, thinking of what to say, what to do, next.

"It's harder to live. If I died, I wouldn't have to look at Bonnie's face, everyday. I wouldn't have to think about Enzo and anyone else I killed during my ripper spree or all the misery I caused." Stefan said.

"That's life, Stefan. We've all done terrible things and we need to learn to accept it and let go. I know that you think everything that's happened over the past 200 years is your fault, but it's not. I killed Tyler Lockwood, it was my choice."

"No, Damon. That was Sybil. That wasn't your—" Stefan shook his head.

"And neither was your ripper spree. Seline saw that. She knew you felt remorse and that's why she didn't kill you in 1917. You were a slave to your addiction. And plus you were always a dick without your humanity." Stefan laughed. Damon had always loved making his brother smile, but this time was different. He could tell that the stress of everything had gotten to him. The lines on his face were a little deeper, but that didn't stop Stefan from smiling.

"I want to help you, brother." Damon said. Stefan turned to him. "I want to be there for you the way you've been there for me all those times over the past two hundred years."

"What, an eternity of misery passed?" Stefan scoffed.

Damon half-smiled the way he always did. "How about a new promise? A lifetime of redemption. No, a lifetime of fun."

"It's not nearly as catchy, but deal." Stefan grinned.

* * *

If you liked this, please let me know by leaving a review! I was thinking of doing an epilogue or something. Any thoughts on the idea?


	2. Chapter 2

~Ten Years Later~

It was a regular day at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted—Caroline had a stack of applications to review, Stefan, Jeremy and Alaric were in the middle of a hunter training session, Freya and Bonnie were teaching a spells class, Keelin was chatting up some newbie werewolves, and Damon and Elena were somehow sleeping through all of it.

Everything seemed the same, but it wasn't. Today was different. In the middle of spells class, an excited Hope Mikealson yelled, "Yes, that's it!" She always sat in the back because all the other witches were "centuries behind", as she would complain to her Aunt Freya, but all her time spent day-dreaming in class had finally paid off. Freya sensed that what her niece was thinking about was important. Hope never said much during class. "I don't want to show off there. Everyone's still learning to control their powers and understanding what it means to be a witch and me answering all the questions doesn't help them." she once said.

"Bonnie, please continue the class. I need to talk to Hope, alone." She gestured to Hope and then to the door. Hope sped to the front of the class and both her and her aunt promptly left. As they began walking down the corridor, Freya asked, "What's going on? You don't have a sudden interest in participating in class now, do you?"

Hope rolled her eyes and began walking up the stairs. "No, it's more than that. Follow me." she said. She opened the door to Damon's room and quickly moved toward the bed, promptly nudging Elena awake. She seemed flustered and annoyed when she realized that it wasn't Damon who woke her. After some moments tossing and turning, she opened her eyes, grabbed her phone to check the time and then finally, begrudgingly, rolled out of bed.

"What?" Elena said with a slow yawn as Hope dragged her to her Aunt Freya's room.

"You'll see." Hope replied. "Aunt Freya, could you get Stefan?"

"Sure." she replied, with some confusion. In the following few minutes, Hope gathered various herbs, a knife, and other strange ingredients and set them around the large bowl on the desk, while Elena made herself at home on Freya's bed. She was very tempted to pull the covers over herself and go back to sleep when Freya returned with Stefan.

"What's going on?" Stefan asked, as he stepped into the room.

Hearing his voice, Elena replied, "I don't know, but Hope was so pressed she woke me up super early. You know I slept at 4AM, last night?"

"We know." all three said in unison.

"You're not the least bit quiet, you know that?" Freya whispered to Elena.

"So, what's this all about?" Stefan asked, wanting to change the subject. Even if he had moved on from Elena, he still didn't like knowing this much about her and his brother's sex life.

Hope began throwing all the ingredients she laid out before her into the bowl. Grabbing the knife, she gestured to Elena. "I need your blood." Half awake, Elena got off the bed and placed her hand over the bowl as Hope nicked it. The blood dripped from her hand for a few seconds before her hand healed. "Now it's your turn, Stefan." Hope said, pointing the knife towards him.

"What, no. I'm the cure, remember?" he replied. "Wait, what is this even for?" Just then the door opened, and Damon and Bonnie stumbled in.

"Can you guys not be so loud? I slept unbelievably l—" Damon started.

"We know." Bonnie said, effectively shutting him up.

"Bonnie, come here, I'm going to need you for this, as well." Hope said as she grinded up some hyacinths. "And Stefan, if this doesn't work, I'll turn you into a hybrid or bring you back from the grave or whatever. Just trust me, I've thought this through." And for some reason, Stefan believed her. He grabbed the knife and sterilized it with some hand sanitizer he had in his pocket. Years of being human and being married to Caroline taught him to do these things cautiously. He winced as he sliced down his hand and held it over the bowl. "Okay, now Bonnie, I'm going to need you to channel your ancestors."

"What, now?" Bonnie remarked in surprise.

"Hold on, is this what I think it is?" Elena asked, suddenly fully awake.

"Yes, it is." Hope said. Hope and Bonnie joined hands and began chanting. They phasmatosed the crap out of the potion for what felt like hours to everyone else in the room, until Hope and Bonnie promptly opened their eyes. "Now, Elena, Stefan, come join me." Hope held out her hands for the two and almost instantly, they did. More chanting ensued. This time, however, the weather outside began to change, the ground shook, and the potion began to glow. First it was bright, like the sun itself was brought into the room, but then, an onyx blood color. Everyone watched as maroons and blacks danced through the potion. Suddenly Damon was next to Elena and Caroline and Alaric were opening the door. All stood in awe at Hope as she created it.

"Is that—" Caroline trailed off.

"Oh my god." Hope opened her eyes and grabbed the shot glasses sitting at the side of the desk. She poured a small amount of the potion into them, stood up and handed each of them to Stefan, Elena, and Damon.

"This is the cure to vampirism. A little play on the travelers' anti-magic spell. Bottoms up." she said. All three drank the potion without a second thought"

"How?" Damon asked, wiping his mouth.

"I thought about all the stories I heard from Stefan about the travelers while I was daydreaming today in class. And I know that one pesky thing with the cure is that once someone drinks your blood, they take the cure. So, I decided to tweak it. Using the travelers' anti-magic spell, a protection spell linked to the sun itself, and some guidance from Qetisyah—Thank you, Bonnie—I made my own version of the cure. And this one can't get sucked out of you. Instead, you are now living, breathing wells for it. You're welcome." Just as Damon, Elena, and Stefan fell to the floor, all the adults in the room caught them. They placed all three on the bed and waited. A few hours later, Elena awoke to find Stefan and Damon looking at her.

"You know we thought we lost you there." Damon said.

"What happened?" Elena asked, groggy.

"Well we woke up about an hour ago. We tested the potion. It works. Bonnie's mom stopped by and drank my blood. She's tending to the garden in the back. She's a witch, again." Damon replied.

"And since I haven't hacked up a tooth or blood, I say that we're in the clear." Stefan smiled, feeling the most alive he's ever felt in a long time. "I'm gonna go," he added, sensing what was going to happen. As he closed the door behind himself, he was startled by Caroline. "What's up?"

Stefan could sense the certainty in her expression, but he wasn't sure where it came from. In the years since opening the school, she had always asked for a second opinion, or a third opinion, or a seventeenth opinion when making a decision. Sometimes she would even write to Klaus about it, not that he answered.

"I think I want to take the cure." she says.


End file.
